154 
COMMON NIGHT-HERON. 
in the back figure of our plate, and known as the 
Gardenian Heron, the colour of the plumage is dif- 
ferent shades of wood-brown, very deep above, and 
approaching to yellowish-white below, and on the 
back and wing-coverts having each feather marked 
along the centres with triangular white spots ; be- 
neath, the feathers are margined with darker wood- 
brown, which gives an interrupted appearance to 
these parts ; the bill is more of an olive colour at 
the base, and the legs and feet are nearly olive- 
green; in this state there is no indication of the 
crest. 
On comparing a specimen of an adult bird from 
Southern Afiica with two others, the one from the 
continent, the other killed in Scotland, we find no 
difference, except in the crest of those of Europe 
and Britain ; in it the narrow feathers are uniform 
in their breadth, and are pure white ; in the speci- 
men from Africa, the feather is a quarter of an inch 
in breadth at the base, gradually narrowing to an 
accumulated point ; the shaft is dark, and in one of 
them the half is entirely black. 
